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Tuesday, March 15, 2016

The Life of a Teacher Using Technology

Here I am, joining the blogging community! I thought it would be a good idea to write about my school day while reflecting on my teaching. I was inspired to blog through attending the Google for Education Summit. I attended one of the sessions that talked not only about getting your students to blog about the class subject at hand, but why you, the teacher, should blog as well.
I thought what a great idea! I should take up blogging about the trials and tribulations of being a secondary educator. All the while, I could share what I'm doing in the classroom and hopefully get feedback.
So let's get started, shall we?

First off, as I said earlier, I recently attended a two day Google for Education Summit. It was great to not only get around fellow educators who were eager to learn about technology and education, but to be around a bunch of fellow tech geeks. I found the summit to be a great experience. I picked up a couple of ideas that I look forward to implementing in my classroom, or should I say, the computer lab (more on that later).

One of those things that I'm excited to try out is called Pear Deck. Pear Deck is essentially an interactive PowerPoint. Students respond to questions or activities posed on the Pear Deck through their device. Students can use a tablet, a phone, or a computer. I think it's a great alternative to the lecture/taking notes thing.

I mentioned the computer lab. Unfortunately, I don't have a classroom full of computers let alone Chromebooks. So, what I have to do, as I'm sure many teachers out there have to do, is fight for a computer lab. If I'm lucky, I can get in a lab a couple of times a week. It's kinda frustrating because I would love to use Google resources much more often.

I'm a certified Google instructor. That said, I'm eager to try out new internet technologies. I really like Google Classroom for the students. And, I'm saving tons of paper in the process. I think the students are more engaged and apt to participate if they have a computer in front of them.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed to get a classroom set of Chromebooks in the near future, it sure would make my job more interesting for me and engaging for the students.